OFA e-mail: The sequester is not a list of numbers made up to scare you, but…

posted at 2:01 pm on March 13, 2013 by Erika Johnsen

…but while we’re on the subject, we just wanted to send our Organizing for Action supporters this quick update about how your child is probably going to be less safe and not as well cared for at his or her public school now that the cuts are kicking in. Just a casual e-mail between friends:

Friend -

Megan Allen is a fifth-grade teacher in Tampa, Florida. At her elementary school, 90 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

Many live in poverty, with unstable home lives — some have parents in prison, others go hungry over the weekends. But at school, they’re winning science fairs, challenging themselves, and eating two hot meals a day.

For Megan’s 36 fifth graders, school is a safe place. The budget cuts known as the sequester could change that.

In the county where Megan teaches, 142 schools stand to lose $3 million in funding. The sequester could also slash as much as $2 million in federal funding for special education.

When those cuts kick in, Megan’s students could lose teachers that help them every day — for example, the folks who coach them through tricky arithmetic, or give those who are having reading trouble the special attention they need. The Head Start programs that got these students ready for kindergarten will be dramatically cut down. Their class sizes could go up, leaving less time for individual attention.

The sequester isn’t a list of numbers made up to scare you. It’s a very real thing that will negatively impact real people — like Megan’s 36 students and their families. [...]

Thanks for speaking up.

Lindsay

Lindsay Siler

National Director of Issue Campaigns

Organizing for Action

Hmm, wasn’t it President Obama’s Secretary of Education Arne Duncation who performed one of the biggest sequestration-scaremongering face plants on the effects the cuts would have on teacher layoffs? Are you guys sure you’re not exaggerating, maybe just a little? ‘Cause this is getting really old, really fast.

Blowback

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Meet the sequester (from AP news): The National Gallery of Art plans to close its modern art galleries for three years to complete a $68 million renovation, adding new galleries and a rooftop sculpture garden. Federal funds will pay for renovations to the East Building’s infrastructure, totaling $38.4 million.

It is my understanding that all of civilization will collapse and cease to exist within a decade if this thing passes…wake up America, we are doomed if we allow seacrestation to take place, we cannot not allow Ryan Seacrest to take over, look what has happened to American Idol…Seacrestation cannot be allowed to exist…

Megan Allen is a fifth-grade teacher in Tampa, Florida. At her elementary school, 90 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

Many live in poverty, with unstable home lives

What Lindsay should’ve said:

Friend -

We Socialists have destroyed the family. We have done so, so that you can become a ward of the State. Lenin spoke about the destruction of the family, for this very purpose. We Socialists have created your poverty, because that’s what Socialism does. It destroys markets. It destroys jobs. It destroys the incentive for you to work. It creates your poverty. And it is because of your poverty that you have become generationally dependent on us. We own you. You obey us. This is as we intended. We created your plantation, and you will continue to live on it.

We Socialists have destroyed the family. We have done so, so that you can become a ward of the State. Lenin spoke about the destruction of the family, for this very purpose. We Socialists have created your poverty, because that’s what Socialism does. It destroys markets. It destroys jobs. It destroys the incentive for you to work. It creates your poverty. And it is because of your poverty that you have become generationally dependent on us. We own you. You obey us. This is as we intended. We created your plantation, and you will continue to live on it.